Part 22

James Hepburn succeeded in 1556 to his father's titles, lands and hereditary offices, including that of lord high admiral of Scotland. Though a Protestant, he supported the government of Mary of Guise, showed himself violently anti-English, and led a raid into England, subsequently in 1559 meeting the English commissioners and signing articles for peace on the border. The same year he seized L1000 secretly sent by Elizabeth to the lords of the congregation. In retaliation Arran occupied and stripped his castle at Crichton, whereupon Bothwell in November sent Arran a challenge, which the latter declined. In December he was sent by the queen dowager to secure Stirling, and in 1560 was despatched on a mission to France, visiting Denmark on the way, where he either married or seduced Anne, daughter of Christopher Thorssen, whom he afterwards deserted, and who came to Scotland in 1563 to obtain redress. He joined Mary at Paris in September, and in 1561 was sent by her as a commissioner to summon the parliament; in February he arrived in Edinburgh and was chosen a privy councillor on the 6th of September. He now entered into obligations to keep the peace with his various rivals, but was soon implicated in riots and partisan disorders, and was ordered in December to leave the city. In March 1562, having made up his quarrel with Arran, he was accused of having proposed to the latter a project for seizing the queen, and in May he was imprisoned in Edinburgh castle, whence he succeeded in escaping on the 28th of August. On the 23rd of September he submitted to the queen. Murray's influence, however, being now supreme, he embarked in December for France, but was driven by storms on to Holy Island, where he was detained, and was subsequently, on the 18th of January 1564, seized at Berwick and sent by Elizabeth to the Tower, whence he was soon liberated and proceeded to France. After these adventures he returned to Scotland in March 1565, but withdrew once more before the superior strength of his opponents to France. The same year, however, he was recalled by Mary to aid in the suppression of Murray's rebellion, successfully eluding the ships of Elizabeth sent to capture him. As lieutenant of the Marches he was employed in settling disputes on the border, but used his power to instigate thieving and disorders, and is described by Cecil's correspondents as "as naughty a man as liveth and much given to the most detestable vices," "as false as a devil," "one that the godly of this whole nation hath a cause to curse for ever."[1] In February 1566 Bothwell, in spite of his previous matrimonial engagements--and he had also been united by "handfasting" to Janet Betoun of Cranstoun Riddell--married Jane, daughter of George Gordon, 4th earl of Huntly. Notwithstanding his insulting language concerning Mary and the fact that he was the "stoutest" in refusing mass, he became one of her chief advisers, but his complete ascendancy over her mind and affections dates from the murder of Rizzio on the 9th of March 1566. The queen required a protector, whom she found, not in the feeble Darnley, nor in any of the leaders of the factions, but in the strong, determined earl who had ever been a stanch supporter of the throne against the Protestant party and English influence. In Bothwell also, "the glorious, rash and hazardous young man," romantic, handsome, charming even in his guilt, Mary gained what she lacked in her husband, a lover. He now stood forth as her champion; Mary took refuge with him at Dunbar, presented him, among other estates, with the castle there and the chief lands of the earldom of March, and made him the most powerful noble in the south of Scotland. Her partiality for him increased as her contempt and hatred of Darnley became more confirmed. On the 7th of October he was dangerously wounded, and the queen showed her anxiety for his safety by riding 40 miles to visit him, incurring a severe illness. In November she visited him at Dunbar, and in December took place the conference at Craigmillar at which both were present, and at which the disposal of Darnley was arranged, Bothwell with some others subsequently signing the bond to accomplish his murder. He himself superintended all the preparations, visiting Darnley with Mary on the night of the crime, Sunday, 9th of February 1567, attending the queen on her return to Holyrood for the ball, and riding back to Kirk o' Field to carry out the crime. After the explosion he hurried back to Holyrood and feigned surprise at the receipt of the news half an hour later, ascribing the catastrophe to "the strangest accident that ever chancit, to wit, the fouder (lightning) came out of the luft (sky) and had burnt the king's house."[2]

Bothwell's power was now greater, and the queen's affection for him more ardent than ever. She was reported to have said that she cared not to lose France, England and her own country for him, and would go with him to the world's end in a white petticoat ere she left him.[3] He was gratified with further rewards, and his success was clouded by no stings of conscience or remorse. According to Melville he had designs on the life of the young prince. On the demand of Lennox, Darnley's father, Bothwell was put upon his trial in April, but Lennox, having been forbidden to enter the city with more than six attendants, refused to attend, and Bothwell was declared not guilty. The queen's intention to marry Bothwell, which had been kept a strict secret before the issue of the trial, was now made public. On the 19th of April he obtained the consent and support of the Protestant lords, who signed a bond in his favour. On the 24th he seized Mary's willing person near Edinburgh, and carried her to his castle at Dunbar. On the 3rd of May Bothwell's divorce from his wife was decreed by the civil court, on the ground of his adultery with a maidservant, and on the 7th by the Roman Catholic court on the ground of consanguinity. Archbishop Hamilton, however, who now granted the decree, had himself obtained a papal dispensation for the marriage,[4] and in consequence it is extremely doubtful whether according to the Roman Catholic law Bothwell and Mary were ever husband and wife. On the 12th Bothwell was created duke of Orkney and Shetland and the marriage took place on the 15th according to the Protestant usage, the Roman Catholic rite being performed, according to some accounts, afterwards in addition.[5]

Bothwell's triumph, however, was shortlived. The nobles, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, now immediately united to effect his destruction. In June Mary and Bothwell fled from Holyrood to Borthwick Castle, whence Bothwell, on the place being surrounded by Morton and his followers, escaped to Dunbar, Mary subsequently joining him. Thence they marched with a strong force towards Edinburgh, meeting the lords on the 15th of June at Carberry Hill. Bothwell invited any one of the nobles to single combat, but Mary forbade the acceptance of the challenge. Meanwhile, during the negotiations, the queen's troops had been deserting; a surrender became inevitable, and Bothwell returned to Dunbar, parting from Mary for ever. Subsequently Bothwell left Dunbar for the north, visited Orkney and Shetland, and in July placed himself at the head of a band of pirates, and after eluding all attempts to capture him, arrived at Karm Sound in Norway. Here he was confronted by his first wife or victim, Anne Thorssen, whose claims he satisfied by the gift of a ship and promises of an annuity, and on his identity becoming known he was sent by the authorities to Copenhagen, where he arrived on the 30th of September. He wrote _Les Affaires du comte de Boduel_, exhibiting himself as the victim of the malice of his enemies, and gained King Frederick II.'s goodwill by an offer to restore the Orkneys and Shetlands to Denmark. In consequence the king allowed him to remain at Copenhagen, and refused all requests for his surrender. In January 1568 he was removed to Malmoe in Sweden. He corresponded frequently with Mary, but there being no hopes whatever of his restoration, and a new suitor being found in the duke of Norfolk, Mary demanded a divorce, on pleas which recall those of Henry VIII. in the matter of Catherine of Aragon. The divorce was finally granted by the pope in September 1570 on the ground of her prenuptial ravishment by Bothwell,[6] and met with no opposition from the latter. After the downfall of Mary, Bothwell's good treatment came to an end, and on the 16th of June 1573 he was removed to the castle of Dragsholm or Adelersborg in Zealand. Here the close and solitary confinement, and the dreary and hopeless inactivity to which he was condemned, proved a terrible punishment for the full-blooded, energetic and masterful Bothwell. He sank into insanity, and died on the 14th of April 1578. He was buried at the church of Faareveille, where a coffin, doubtfully supposed to be his, was opened in 1858. A portrait was taken of the head of the body found therein, now in the museum of the Society of Antiquaries in Scotland. His so-called death-bed confession is not genuine.

He left no lawful descendants; but his nephew, FRANCIS STEWART HEPBURN, who, through his father, John Stewart, prior of Coldingham, was a grandson of King James V., and was thus related to Mary, queen of Scots, and the regent Murray, was in 1581 created earl of Bothwell. He was lord high admiral of Scotland, and was a person of some importance at the court of James VI. during the time when the influence of the Protestants was uppermost. He was anxious that Mary Stuart's death should be avenged by an invasion of England, and in 1589 he suffered a short imprisonment for his share in a rising. By this time he had completely lost the royal favour. Again imprisoned, this time on a charge of witchcraft, he escaped from captivity in 1591, and was deprived by parliament of his lands and titles; as an outlaw his career was one of extraordinary lawlessness. In 1591 he attempted to seize Holyrood palace, and in 1593 he captured the king, forcing from him a promise of pardon. But almost at once he reverted to his former manner of life, and, although James failed to apprehend him, he was forced to take refuge in France about 1595. He died at Naples before July 1614. This earl had three sons, but his titles were never restored.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--See the article in the _Dict. of Nat. Biog._ and authorities; _Les Affaires du comte de Boduel_ (written January 1568, publ. Bannatyne Club, 1829); "Memoirs of James, Earl of Bothwell," in G. Chalmers's _Life of Mary, Queen of Scots_ (1818); _Life of Bothwell_, by F. Schiern (trans. 1880); _Pieces et documents relatifs au comte de Bothwell_, by Prince A. Lobanoff (1856); _Appendix to the Hist. of Scotland_, by G. Buchanan (1721); _Sir James Melville's Memoirs_ (Bannatyne Club, 1827); _A Lost Chapter in the Hist. of Mary, Queen of Scots_, by J. Stuart (1874); J.H. Burton's _Hist. of Scotland_ (1873); A. Lang's _Hist. of Scotland_, ii. (1902); _Archaeologia_, xxxviii. 308; _Cal. of State Papers, Foreign, Scottish, Venetian_, vii; _Exchequer Rolls of Scotland_, xix. and xx., _Domestic, Border Papers_; _Hist. MSS. Comm., MSS. of Marq. of Salisbury_, i. ii. See also MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS. (P. C. Y.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Cal. of State Papers, Scottish, i. 679._

[2] _Sir James Melville's Mem. 174._

[3] _Cal. of State Pap., Foreign, 1566-1568_, p. 212.

[4] _Hist. MSS. Comm._ Rep. ii. p. 177.

[5] _Cal. of State Pap., Scottish_, ii. 333.

[6] _Cal. of State Pap., Foreign, 1569-1571_, p. 372.

BOTHWELL, a town of Lanarkshire, Scotland. Pop. of town (1901) 3015; of parish (1901) 45,905. The town lies on the right bank of the Clyde, 9 m. E. S. E. of Glasgow by the North British and Caledonian railways. Owing to its pleasant situation it has become a residential quarter of Glasgow. The choir of the old Gothic church of 1398 (restored at the end of the 19th century) forms a portion of the parish church. Joanna Baillie, the poetess, was born in the manse, and a memorial has been erected in her honour. The river is crossed by a suspension bridge as well as the bridge near which, on the 22nd of June 1679, was fought the battle of Bothwell Bridge between the Royalists, under the duke of Monmouth, and the Covenanters, in which the latter lost 500 men and 1000 prisoners. Adjoining this bridge, on the level north-eastern bank, is the castle that once belonged to James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh (fl. 1566-1580), the assassin of the regent Murray; and near the present farmhouse the South Calder is spanned by a Roman bridge. The picturesque ruins of Bothwell Castle occupy a conspicuous position on the side of the river, which here takes the bold sweep famed in Scottish song as Bothwell bank. The fortress belonged to Sir Andrew Moray, who fell at Stirling in 1297, and passed by marriage to the Douglases. The lordship was bestowed in 1487 on Patrick Hepburn, 3rd Lord Hailes, 1st earl of Bothwell, who resigned it in 1491 in favour of Archibald Douglas, 5th earl of Angus. It thus reverted to the Douglases and now belongs to the earl of Home, a descendant. The castle is a fine example of Gothic, and mainly consists of a great oblong quadrangle, flanked on the south side by circular towers. At the east end are the remains of the chapel. A dungeon bears the nickname of "Wallace's Beef Barrel." The unpretending mansion near by was built by Archibald Douglas, 1st earl of Forfar (1653-1712). The parish of Bothwell contains several flourishing towns and villages, all owing their prosperity to the abundance of coal, iron and oil-shale. The principal places, most of which have stations on the North British or Caledonian railway or both, are Bothwell Park, Carfin, Chapelhall, Bellshill (pop. 8786), Holytown, Mossend, Newarthill, Uddingston (pop. 7463), Clydesdale, Hamilton Palace, Colliery Rows and Tennochside.

BOTOCUDOS (from Port. _botoque_, a plug, in allusion to the wooden disks or plugs worn in their lips and ears), the foreign name for a tribe of South American Indians of eastern Brazil, also known as the Aimores or Aimbores. They appear to have no collective tribal name for themselves. Some are called Nac-nanuk or Nac-poruk, "sons of the soil." The name Botocudos cannot be traced much farther back than the writings of Prince Maximilian von Neuwied (_Reise nach Bresilien_, Frankfort-On-Main, 1820). When the Portuguese adventurer Vasco Fernando Coutinho reached the east coast of Brazil in 1535, he erected a fort at the head of Espirito Santo Bay to defend himself against "the Aimores and other tribes." The original home of the tribe comprised most of the present province of Espirito Santo, and reached inland to the headwaters of Rio Grande (Belmonte) and Rio Doce on the eastern slopes of the Serra do Espinhacao, but the Botocudos are now mainly confined to the country between Rio Pardo and Rio Doce, and seldom roam westward beyond Serra dos Aimores into Minas Geraes. It was in the latter district that at the close of the 18th century they came into collision with the whites, who were attracted thither by the diamond fields.

The Botocudos are nomads, wandering naked in the woods and living on forest products. They are below the medium height, but broad-shouldered and remarkable for the muscular development and depth of their chests. Their arms and legs are, however, soft and fleshy, and their feet and hands small. Their features, which vary individually almost as much as those of Europeans, are broad and flat, with prominent brow, high cheek-bones, small bridgeless nose, wide nostrils and slight projection of the jaws. They are longheaded, and their hair is coarse, black and lank. Their colour is a light yellowish brown, sometimes almost approaching white. The general yellow tint emphasizes their Mongolic appearance, which all travellers have noticed. The Botocudos were themselves greatly struck by the Chinese coolies, whom they met in Brazilian seaports, and whom they at once accepted as kinsmen (Henri Hollard, _De l'homme et des races humaines_, Paris, 1853).[1] Some few Botocudos have settled and become civilized, but the great bulk of them, numbering between twelve and fourteen thousand, are still the wildest of savages. During the earlier frontier wars (1790-1820) every effort was made to extirpate them. They were regarded by the Portuguese as no better than wild beasts. Smallpox was deliberately spread among them; poisoned food was scattered in the forests; by such infamous means the coast districts about Rios Doce and Belmonte were cleared, and one Portuguese commander boasted that he had either slain with his own hands or ordered to be butchered many hundreds of them. Their implements and domestic utensils are all of wood; their only weapons are reed spears and bows and arrows. Their dwellings are rough shelters of leaf and bast, seldom 4 ft. high. So far as the language of the Botocudos is known, it would appear that they have no means of expressing the numerals higher than one. Their only musical instrument is a small bamboo nose-flute. They attribute all the blessings of life to the "day-fire" (sun) and all evil to "night-fire" (moon). At the graves of the dead they keep fires burning for some days to scare away evil spirits, and during storms and eclipses arrows are shot into the sky to drive away demons.

The most conspicuous feature of the Botocudos is the _tembeitera_, or wooden plug or disk which is worn in the lower lip and the lobe of the ear. This disk, made of the specially light and carefully dried wood of the barriguda tree (_Chorisia ventricosa_), is called by the natives themselves _embure_, whence Augustin Saint Hilaire suggests the probable derivation of their name Aimbore (_Voyages dans l'interieur du Bresil 1816-1821_, Paris, 1830). It is worn only in the under-lip, now chiefly by women, but formerly by men also. The operation for preparing the lip begins often as early as the eighth year, when an initial boring is made by a hard pointed stick, and gradually extended by the insertion of larger and larger disks or plugs, sometimes at last as much as 3 in. in diameter. Notwithstanding the lightness of the wood the _tembeitera_ weighs down the lip, which at first sticks out horizontally and at last becomes a mere ring of skin around the wood. Ear-plugs are also worn, of such size as to distend the lobe down to the shoulders. Ear-ornaments of like nature are common in south and even central America, at least as far north as Honduras. When Columbus discovered this latter country during his fourth voyage (1502) he named part of the seaboard _Costa de la Oreja_, from the conspicuously distended ears of the natives. Early Spanish explorers also gave the name _Orejones_ or "big-eared" to several Amazon tribes.

See A.R. Wallace, _Travels on the Amazon_ (1853-1900); H.H. Bancroft, _Hist. of Pacific States_ (San Francisco, 1882), vol. i. p. 211; A.H. Keane, "On the Botocudos" in _Journ. Anthrop. Instit._ vol. xiii. (1884); J.R. Peixoto, _Novos Estudios Craniologicos sobre os Botocuds_ (Rio Janeiro, 1882); Prof. C.F. Hartt, _Geology and Physical Geography of Brazil_ (Boston, 1870), pp. 577-606.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] A parallel case is that of the Bashkir soldiers of Orenburg, who formed part of the Russian army sent to put down the Hungarian revolt of 1848, and who recognized their Ugrian kinsmen in the Zeklars and other Magyars settled in the Danube basin.

BOTORI, a Japanese game played at the naval, military and other schools, by two sides of equal number, usually about one hundred, each of which defends a pole about 8 ft. high firmly set in the ground, the poles being about 200 yds. distant from each other. The object of each party is to overthrow the adversaries' pole while keeping their own upright. Pulling, hauling and wrestling are allowed, but no striking or kicking. The players resort to all kinds of massed formations to arrive at the enemies' pole, and frequently succeed in passing over their heads and shoulders one or more comrades, who are thus enabled to reach the pole and bear it down unless pulled off in time by its defenders. A game similar in character is played by the Sophomore and Freshman classes of Amherst College (Massachusetts), called the "Flag-rush." It was instituted at the instance of the faculty to take the place of the traditional "Cane-rush," a general _melee_ between the two classes for the ultimate possession of a stout walking-stick, which became so rough that students were frequently seriously injured. In the "Flag-rush" a small flag is set upon a padded post about 6 ft. high, and is defended by one class while the other endeavours, as at Botori, to overthrow it. If the flag is not captured or torn down within a certain time the defending side wins.

BOTOSHANI (_Botosani_), the capital of the department of Botoshani, Rumania; on a small tributary of the river Jijia, and in one of the richest agricultural and pastoral regions of the north Moldavian hills. Pop. (1900) 32,193. Botoshani is commercially important as the town through which goods from Poland and Galicia pass in transit for the south; being situated on a branch railway between Dorohoi and on the main line from Czernowitz to Galatz. It has extensive starch and flour mills; and Botoshani flour is highly prized in Rumania, besides being largely exported to Turkey and the United Kingdom. Botoshani owes its name to a Tatar chief, Batus or Batu Khan, grandson of Jenghiz Khan, who occupied the country in the 13th century. There are large colonies of Armenians and Jews.

BO-TREE, or BODHI-TREE, the name given by the Buddhists of India and Ceylon to the Pipul or sacred wild fig (_Ficus religiosa_). It is regarded as sacred, and one at least is planted near each temple. These are traditionally supposed to be derived from the original one, the Bodhi-tree of Buddhist annals, beneath which the Buddha is traditionally supposed to have attained perfect knowledge. The Bo-tree at the ruined city of Anuradhapura, 80 m. north of Kandy, grown from a branch of the parent-tree sent to Ceylon from India by King Asoka in the 3rd century B.C., is said to have been planted in 288 B.C., and is to this day worshipped by throngs of pilgrims who come long distances to pray before it. Usually a bo-tree is planted on the graves of the Kandy priests.

BOTRYTIS, a minute fungus which appears as a brownish-grey mould on decaying vegetation or on damaged fruits. Under a hand-lens it is seen to consist of tiny, upright, brown stalks which are branched at the tips, each branchlet being crowned with a naked head of pale-coloured spores. It is a very common fungus, growing everywhere in the open or in greenhouses, and can be found at almost any season. It has also a bad record as a plant disease. If it once gains entrance into one of the higher plants, it spreads rapidly, killing the tissues and reducing them to a rotten condition. Seedling pines, lilies and many other cultivated plants are subject to attack by _Botrytis_, Some of the species exist in two other growth-forms, so different in appearance from the _Botrytis_ that they have been regarded as distinct plants:--a sclerotium, which is a hard compact mass of fungal filaments, or mycelium, that can retain its vitality for a considerable time in a resting condition; and a stalked _Peziza_, or cup-fungus, which grows out of the sclerotium. The latter is the perfect form of fruit. The _Botrytis_ mould is known as the conidial form.